Chapter 96- it is unforgivable
The kids of Carla, Bia and Tiago and company were either asleep or resting in their cages and bedding in the recovery room. Altair and Acerola were resting in two of these cages, the former with his lower back bandaged, his burn having been treated, with his brother Aldebaran, and the latter hanging from a special perch with her feet, her wings wrapped around her body with her younger brother Ferdinand sleeping next to her. The other kids were in the cages near these two cages: Sirius, Einstein, Miles, Sonia, Spica, Melody, Bellatrix, Byron, Achernar, Diego and Polaris were in a cage large enough for the eleven of them; another cage contained Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine; and Canopus, Katniss, Arcturus, Vega, Sugilite and Regulus were together in another cage
And Bambi and Sylvester were in their own small cage as well. Steven and Kevin, Sardonyx and Greg's two remaining sons were in the main medical room with their parents while Connie was in the emergency room, and Sandalwood was with his parents Soren and Stella.
While the kids continued to rest, Jack, Jill, Susan and Lucy came by and checked that all of them were present based on the pictures Lucy had taken of each of the families on the slab humans called an Ipod. As Lucy went past the cage containing Aldebaran and Altair, the two brothers managed to get a glimpse of the pictures she had stored on her Ipod, the one showing them and Petunia and Benjamin, their interspecies parents, perched together on a low branch near Lucy and her family's cottage, taken during Blu and company's visit of them before the entire dramatic story.
"She looks so concerned for us, doesn't she?" said Altair, "Especially for Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares."
"I can't believe those horrible toucans would put those three through such a nightmare," hissed Sirius in the Spix macaws' cage.
"Especially since Betelgeuse couldn't fly due to her tattered wing," put in Einstein.
"They could have easily perished in that fire," said Spica.
"Uncle Sheldon and Aunt Spinel had been so furious with them," said Bellatrix as she remembered those two macaws' volcanic rage at Sofia a while ago, and she shuddered as the sounds of shouting repeated in her mind. Then Diego began to shudder as he began to go through the events of tonight. He, along with everyone else, couldn't believe that the toucan chicks would be this destructive but their playing with the fire resulting in a LOT of the Blu Bird Sanctuary being set ablaze had been the final leaf. They had caused a LOT of devastation for everyone else and had destroyed so many homes and hearts, but the main spark for the inferno had been that chameleon who had stooped into such dark depths in his quest to cause his most loathed bird type, parrots, misery. Dalek's insanity, along with his sly manipulation of the toucan chicks into playing with fire, had indeed destroyed a lot of homes on the Blu Bird Sanctuary and had broken many hearts, but Dalek was the least of Blu and company's worries and woes.
While Diego and the other Spix chicks continued to tearfully go over the traumatic events of tonight, Trixie and Aiden sat on another table, gazing at them and the other chicks of Carla, Bia and Tiago and company, including their only son Arcturus, their nephew Canopus and niece Katniss, and also Acerola and Ferdinand as they continued to rest in their cages. Outrage was boiling within this glaucous macaw couple, as it was within the other members of Blu's group.
"I cannot BELIEVE some of those wretched toucan chicks would go as far as to attempt to drown some of our kids, among them Ferdinand, Neytiri and Tristan's daughter Katniss, both of Jasmine and Finn's chicks Regulus and Vega, and also Aldebaran and Sylvester," the shorter-than-normal glaucous macaw, Trixie, growled, her eyes threatening to weep tears, "and very nearly Polaris as well, had she not escaped to get help."
"The parents of those chicks and that pup, such as Sebastian and Anabelle, had been EXTREMELY upset and utterly OUTRAGED indeed when they were told what their offspring had been put through," said Aiden equally angrily, before his gaze landed on Acerola, "Not to mention some more of those toucan chicks sealing her and Bia and Virgil's three sons Sirius, Einstein and Miles, all four of Poinsettia and Wilbur's chicks and even two of their own cousins, Gladion and Lillie, into that burrow."
Trixie nodded in agreement. It seemed that quite a number of the offspring of Bia, Carla and Tiago and company had suffered a LOT at the clutches of those deranged toucan kids and their equally deranged parents, such as when Marco had almost drowned Aldebaran by dunking him into that stream, much to the utter outrage of Benjamin and Petunia. Then there were Betelgeuse, Rigel and Antares who were abandoned by Sofia and her gang to escape the fire themselves. A LOT of volcanic anger was indeed boiling within Blu's group and also their friends such as Rafael and Eva, against Marco, Sofia and the rest involved. Not to mention the devastation many of the toucan chicks had caused the sanctuary via playing with fire, and the other Blu Bird Sanctuary residents evacuated to the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue had yet to hear about it, and the devastation and the trauma left behind by the destructive toucans were likely to scar almost everyone for a long time to come.
While Trixie and Aiden mate continued gazing at the recovering offspring in the cages, Sandalwood flitted by and touched down onto a cabinet to gaze at the group as well, among them his cousins Acerola and Ferdinand. Like everyone else, he had outrage against the toucans boiling within him as well. Then some familiar forms came by, among them a few of the chicks that had sealed Acerola and the other kids with her away and had participated in tying Sandalwood up and knocking him off the end of the branch, and many of them were covered in a few bandages and plasters but a few others suffered worse injuries, especially from the thing that continued to spread throughout the sanctuary in the form of the glowing orange monster scraping the sky and spewing its thick black stinking mist into it and blocking out the moon and the stars. Sandalwood flinched as his eyes landed on the small group of bandaged toucan chicks, especially as their weary eyes flashed him a slow glance, before their gazes returned to the rest of the kids of Carla, Bia, Tiago and company.
"So that reddish bat had managed to find her way out of that burrow with her chick friends, eh?" asked one of the toucan chicks, a bandage over his right eye and a small plaster on his cheek in a low voice, hoping that no other bird or animal would hear him, as he gazed at Acerola as she continued to sleep by hanging from her perch with her feet with Ferdinand by her side, "I thought we rolled that large stone across the entrance."
Some of the other chicks nodded and murmured in agreement. However, although the toucan chick had spoken in a low voice, it had not gone unheard. Sandalwood had overheard this and when he heard that some of the ones who had tossed his cousin Acerola and some of the chicks of Bia, Carla and Tiago's group into that burrow and sealed them in, according to Connie, were present, a flash of outrage tore through the amber flying fox pup and make him tremble. His amber fur bristled and he hissed through his gritted teeth. Without hesitation, Sandalwood began to release some of his anger at the chicks through a retort at the comment said about Acerola and how she escaped from that burrow with the chicks with her.
"You lot almost got my cousin Acerola, and several chicks, among them Sirius, Einstein and Miles… KILLED THEN!" shouted the amber bat pup, screeching the last two words. This pulled the toucan chicks' gazes his way. When they saw Sandalwood perched on the elevated top of the cabinet, surprised looks entered their gazes, and the toucan chicks began to exchange glances.
"Is that the bat pup who could not fly and is afraid of heights and flying?" asked one.
"Then what is he doing up there?" asked another. However, Sandalwood wasn't a bit interested in how he had managed to overcome his fear of heights and flying. Leaping off the cabinet top and spreading his wings, he descended towards the group of toucan chicks and landed before them, making them even more surprised. However, those surprised looks were erased from their faces when Sandalwood pierced them with a thunderous look.
"You think it's hilarious to stuff Acerola and some of the chicks into that burrow and seal them in it!?" he growled, "How COULD you!?" his gaze turned to the sleeping Acerola and Ferdinand in their cage, "She and the others whom you had put through such an ordeal might have a fear of enclosed spaces now."
The toucan chicks shuddered but then they began to concoct a slew of excuses to escape blame.
"Oh, it was Sirius's idea," said one, the one with the bandage over his eye and cheek, "He was the one who decided that him and the others with him, including that little bat pup," his gaze turned to Acerola, "to seal themselves away into that burrow."
"We had nothing to do with it," said another, a female and one of the eye-bandaged toucan's sisters. The other toucan chicks nodded in agreement. However, Sandalwood was unconvinced and his body began to tremble all the more with rage. Just then, five penguins: three of which were adults with one of them having the head and upper body of an emperor penguin chick; and two chicks, one of them with a stringy crest emanating from his brow above the eyes came in and when their eyes landed on the toucan chicks, a slightly sarcastic look came upon their faces. Mumble, Atreyu, Balthazar, Ginny and JD had come in to check on Sandalwood and had overheard the conversation between him and the toucan chicks.
"Well, well, well if it ain't them big-beaked skua chicks who always seem to behave like dat parrot-detestin' chameleon Dalek," crooned JD scornfully in his squeaky voice and with that, he shot the toucan chicks a stink-eye. Confusion washed over the chicks when the macaroni penguin chick said this.
"What's a skua?" squeaked one of them.
"It's a type of seabird that likes to pick out and eat the chicks of other seabirds, including penguins, for lunch," said Mumble in a stern voice, his wing-flippers folded, "I was almost a victim of one of them when I was young."
"Ravenously brutal birds they are," put in Ginny.
"Several of us emperor penguins have sometimes lost our chicks to those marauding sky seals time and time again," added Balthazar, "But we tend to call you tree birds skuas since we aren't familiar with your species."
Atreyu nodded in agreement. Offended looks then came upon the toucan chicks and they flinched. Sandalwood knew that Atreyu's uncle and parents weren't familiar with land birds as noted to him by some of Blu's group members such as Sheldon, Zebedee and Iris, the three macaws who had found Mumble, Ginny and Balthazar on Rio beach in the first place, and that they kept referring to tree birds as the birds they are more familiar with, such as skuas and seagulls and obviously did not mean to offend, but based on the attitude and the destructiveness of these toucan chicks apart from a few, Sandalwood knew that the word 'skua' fit these chicks very well.
"Hey, are you saying that WE go round killin' and eatin' the chicks of other birds as well!?" snapped one of the toucan chicks.
"Perhaps not to eat them but going around and killing them, it certainly seems that way," said Atreyu with narrowed eyes and folded wing-flippers. This stung the small group of toucan chicks very painfully.
"We'd better go," grumbled the ringleader, the toucan chick with the bandage over his eye and cheek, in an intimidated voice.
"Yeah, we won't STAY HERE to be INSULTED!" put in another, a female, "Especially after what WE have all been through."
Hearing this, Sandalwood boldly stepped up to her and glared at her in the eye, "I think you should rephrase that as, 'especially after what WE have put everyone ELSE through with the fire', you destructive toucan chicks."
"WE weren't referring to YOU or ANYONE ELSE, we were talking about OURSELVES!" snapped one of the female toucan chick's brothers and with that, he tackled into Sandalwood and gave him a hefty shove, sending the amber bat pup stumbling towards Atreyu and was caught by him. As Atreyu stood Sandalwood onto his feet and Sandalwood thanked him, the bat pup glared back at the angry toucan chicks.
"Bunch of utterly self-centered, selfish BRATS!" he snarled. The toucan chicks then grouped together and pierced Sandalwood, Atreyu, Mumble, Ginny, Balthazar and JD with hostile glares, much to the fright of the five penguins and flying fox but then a shout exploded through the air.
"HEY, you LOT!" said the familiar voice loudly, pulling Sandalwood and the penguins' attention to the shouter, a white flying fox with reddish eyes, as she rushed in. She was accompanied by several more flying foxes, two of which were also white and the other four either with brown or reddish fur. The toucan chicks' hostile glares immediately flashed to ones of fright as the seven winged, doglike-faced mammals touched down in front of Sandalwood and the penguins and shot them volcanic glares.
"GET OUTA HERE, right NOW, you BUNCH of MARAUDING, DELINQUENT, DESTRUCTIVE BRATS!" bellowed one of them, Augustus, at the top of his voice, striking fear into the terrified toucan chicks.
"AND STAY AWAY FROM OUR SON!" screeched Stella and Soren also at the top of their voices, so loud that it carried throughout the medical rooms of Tulio's Aviary and attracted the attention of both humans and the animals, among them Blu and company and many of the bad toucans who were still undergoing treatment. Soren and Stella's screeching also jolted awake many of the recovering chicks of Bia, Carla, Tiago and company and Acerola and Ferdinand, the latter almost dropping from the perch as the sound pieced their ears. Then all gazes turned and landed on the incredibly hostile group of bats as they continued to bitterly and hostilely glare at the terrified toucan chicks. The toucan chicks trembled violently and began to weep but then two more forms, both with colourful feathers this time, came by Mumble and Augustus and the others and stood before the toucan chicks with volcanic looks as well.
"WE know what some of you hoodlum toucan chicks had done to THOSE CHICKS and the DAUGHTER OF SEBASTIAN AND ANABELLE!" screeched Poinsettia at the toucan group at the top of her voice, "WHEN SOME OF YOU LOT TOSSED THEM INTO THAT BURROW and SEALED THEM IN!"
"WE ALMOST LOST ALL FOUR OF OUR CHICKS, ADENINE, THYMINE, CYTOSINE AND GUANINE, because of YOU!" screeched Wilbur in the loudest, most volcanic voice he had ever screeched in his life, "and BIA AND VIRGIL had ALMOST LOST ALL THREE OF THEIR SONS. Not to mention DIANTHA almost losing both her CHICKS."
Then the couple erupted into a volcanic temper outburst at the toucan chicks, emitting an EXTREMELY loud and piercing scream at them as well as flapping and lurching at them. Stella, Soren, Sebastian and Anabelle joined in and emitted the loudest and most piercing screams as they could, and also flapped their wings madly to drive away the toucan chicks. This was enough to bring the terrified toucan chicks to a state of hysteria. Tears fell from their eyes, their breathing rates skyrocketed and they began to tremble violently. Not wanting to stand in the searing, hostile, furious glares of Augustus and his family, and Wilbur and Poinsettia any longer, the little flock of toucan chicks scarpered and disappeared out of the door.
"MOOOOOM, DAAAAAAAAD!" wailed the cowardly delinquents as they fled, almost running over several more birds, among them Roxanne the galah, in the process. Roxanne flashed the crying toucan chicks a glare.
After the toucan chicks had gone and Augustus, Melissa, Anabelle, Sebastian and Luna had left to calm down the startled chicks, Acerola and Ferdinand and apologise for the commotion, Stella, Soren, Wilbur and Poinsettia shot Sandalwood, as he stood at Mumble's feet, a stern look.
"Some of those chicks were the ones who sealed Acerola and the others into that burrow, Mom, Dad, Mr Wilbur and Mrs Poinsettia," said the flying fox pup immediately, "and they were surprised at how they had managed to get out…"
When Poinsettia and Wilbur heard this, the volcanic temper flared up within them again and Sebastian and Anabelle practically exploded.
"ARE THEY!?" shouted Wilbur unexpectedly, unintentionally startling Mumble and the other four penguins and also Roxanne as she came in. Then the scarlet macaw, his blue-and-gold mate and Acerola and Ferdinand's parents stormily tore after the toucan chicks, leaving Stella and Soren with Sandalwood.
"Well, you stay away from those delinquents, Sandy," said Stella firmly, at which Sandalwood lowered his ears and bowed his head in shame.
"Yes, they've caused all of us trouble, trauma, damage and who knows what else," put in Soren, "And they're not WORTH talking to."
"To hear that they've been messing about with something that the aliens (humans) have managed to discover and that causes mass damage is utterly horrifying," said Mumble.
"I guess we penguins should be glad that we don't get dangerous things like 'fire' in our home of Emperor-Land in the Antarctic," said Ginny.
"The only hazards WE get are freezing temperatures, predators such as those skuas, which we're sorry to keep calling you tree birds," said Balthazar, "and those leopard seals."
Atreyu nodded in agreement. Soren's gaze then turned to the penguins.
"Can you flightless seabirds also stay well away from those toucans," he said.
"Two-cans?" asked Mumble confused.
"I do believe they're dose tree birds wi' th' large, brightly coloured beaks," squeaked JD.
"Yes, that's them," said Stella, "They're BAD NEWS, they are, and are to suffer EXTREME SHAME for what they had done to us and everyone else."
Mumble's face then creased into a scowl.
"Well, they may not be meat-eating skuas but they certainly are murderous ones," he growled. Ginny, Balthazar, JD and Atreyu nodded in agreement, turned round and left for the main medical room. Before he left with his uncle and parents, Atreyu turned round and lit up Sandalwood with a smile.
"I can see that you've learned to fly, Sandy," he said, "Congratulations."
Sandalwood flashed the emperor penguin chick a thanking smile back as Atreyu then darted off after his parents, uncle and macaroni friend, leaving Stella and Soren to talk to Sandalwood about staying well away from the badly behaved toucan chicks and their parents.
"Okay, I will," said Sandalwood in obedience to his parents' commands.
"Then make sure you do," said Stella firmly.
"We can see that those destructive menaces are still as self-centered as they had been," said Soren. Stella nodded in agreement. Not too far away, Roxanne shrugged and left and made a note in her mind to stay well away from the badly behaved toucans as well for her safety.
In the artificial chamber
Levi and Lapis Lazuli were walking through the artificially made habitat, cleverly and artistically constructed to look like a real forest or jungle one. The ceiling was painted an azure sky blue with patches of white, intended to represent clouds, strewn across it, and the skylight, the large window built into the ceiling, was an onyx black for the light of the habitat was switched on. A variety of plants and trees, both artificial and real, decorated the room and there was a small artificial river flowing through the manmade chamber. Rocks, flowers and other objects decorated the habitat to make it look more like a jungle. It truly was a beautiful construct but it was also a construct that stored ten-plus-year-old memories, and Levi and Lapis Lazuli both felt it all flow back to them as they strolled through the chamber to check on Gylfie who was staying in here.
"I can't believe THIS PLACE is where we first met, Levi," said Lapis as she admired the plants and trees and other decorations, "Do you remember?"
"Not very much outside this room but certainly in here," said Levi in a loving voice, "We were the last pair of glaucous macaws known at the time, weren't we?"
"Yes, that's true, before we had our first four chicks Tristan, Quincy, Larimar and Trixie," said Lapis Lazuli. Levi nodded in agreement. Just then a pattering of talons sounded behind the couple, and they turned round and to their surprise, they saw two of their four grown-up first-brood children, those that had opted to come to Rio with their families, standing before them with smiles on their beaks. Tristan was accompanied by Neytiri, her wing still in a cast, and Trixie was accompanied by Aiden, wanting to come here to escape the sight of the toucans and the rage of the others against them.
"You were gonna give us two and the chicks, among them Katniss, Arcurus and Canopus, a tour of this room where you first met, weren't you?" said Aiden.
"Only for it to be badly interrupted by those wretched toucans, especially after what had happened to Sandalwood at the clutches of some of those horrible chicks," growled Neytiri.
"And everything else that followed," added Tristan.
"Such as all three of our chicks going missing," put in Trixie. Then she began to tremble with rage, "And AGAIN when we were supposed to be stargazing only for those hoodlums to attack us and take our kids."
"I cannot BELIEVE that our poor daughter Katniss, along with Ferdinand and some of the other kids, were almost DROWNED by some of those toucan chicks shortly after they had 'discovered' fire and had set the entire sanctuary ablaze," growled Neytiri disgustedly. Then Trixie put her wings on her stomach and poked her tongue out as though she wanted to be sick.
"It's just nauseating to even think about what those careless and destructive big-beaked destroyers have done to everyone and the sanctuary," he little glaucous macaw grumbled, "It's just beyond unfathomable and unthinkable that it would eventually come to this."
Levi and Lapis Lazuli, angry looks on their faces, nodded in agreement.
What the badly behaved toucans had done certainly was unforgivable. They had devastated absolutely everyone and traumatised even more in a variety of ways. Levi and Lapis Lazuli had hoped that those badly behaved toucans would spend the rest of their lives living in disgrace after what they had put everyone through, not just Blu and company's children and grandchildren, including Levi and his mate's own, but everyone else in the Blu Bird Sanctuary as well, including the clan of Linda's orange bats in which Basil the bat lived which had been rescued from their cave and brought to a safe place by Tulio's bat experts as the fire spread to the trees of their cave as well.